DOE to Give USD 3.7M to Maine Aqua Ventus

The New England Aqua Ventus I offshore wind project will get an additional $3.7 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The University of Maine-led project, also known as Maine Aqua Ventus, will receive the funding to complete engineering and planning work, and approach financial close, in addition to $3 million awarded by DOE in September 2014 to advance the design to deployment readiness.

In May 2014, New England/Maine Aqua Ventus I was selected as an alternate by the DOE for the next phase of its Advanced Technology Demonstration Program.

VolturnUS 1:8, the first grid-connected offshore wind turbine deployed off the coast of North America, was launched in Brewer May 31, 2013 by the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center and its partners. The prototype remained off the coast of Castine, Maine for 1.5 years.

Over 50 onboard sensors measured waves, wind, current, motions and stresses on the floating platform. The data collected was used to further optimize the full-scale 6 MW concrete hull design.

Over the past year, cost studies were conducted with contractors from Maine and across the U.S. and the world to demonstrate the cost-reduction advantages of the VolturnUS floating concrete hull technology, UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center said in a press release.

Professor Habib Dagher, executive director of UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center and principal investigator of the DeepCwind Consortium, said: “Our team is busy putting the final touches on the design of the 6MW hulls for the two-turbine, 12MW demonstration project. The additional funding will help us complete all aspects of the project planning, negotiate supply contracts with industrial partners and approach financial close for the project.”

New England/Maine Aqua Ventus is considered part of the DOE’s offshore wind portfolio under the Offshore Wind Advanced Technology Demonstration Projects, along with projects in Virginia, New Jersey, Oregon and Ohio.

Decisions on which of the five projects advance and receive an additional $40 million will be made by DOE by May 31, 2016, according to DOE.

Image: UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center